October

Our little chatterbox - October, 2008
I'm not sure who he got this from (!) but Kaden loves to chat. Chat, chat, chat. By the end of the month I could no longer try to recount all the words that he knows. He has so many. They are, for the most part, still in his own "tongue" (Kaden-lish as Craig likes to call it), but he can say SO much. In addition...he can parrot pretty much anything we say! And he understands even more. It's crazy. As a start, he usually runs the colour commentary on our lives throughout the day..."daddy milk empty...mommy blow nose...Ali water...gate open...daddy upstairs brush teeth..." (and that's just a small excerpt from a minute or two at breakfast)! Slotted amongst the days events, Kaden will recount various activities that he has done...he still talks about the bike ride we took at the start of September with Ellis and Karyn, he talks about feeding the ducks with Grandma, he recalls the mud at the pumpkin patch and the bells he plays with at Kindermusik. Sometimes it takes us a second to figure out what he is talking about since the memories come fast and furious with no rhyme or reason! He also knows all of Ali's commands - sit, down, give, come, stay... Fortunately she doesn't pay much attention to him yet as he is quick to blurt out "take it" when we make her sit and wait for her dinner! But in addition to all the chatter, Kaden still spends 30% to 40% of his day talking about elevators (the percentage increases on any given day that we actually take a ride on an elevator)!

Happy Halloween! - October 31, 2008
Somehow the end of October snuck up on us. To prepare for the big day we had showed Kaden his Halloween costume earlier in the week. Since he doesn't really know what a dragon is, we sold it as a dinosaur. Good enough for him! We had a few practice trials and then on the big night he was a champ about it and wore it for quite some time...despite being very sweaty when we took it off! We took some requisite pictures around the house and then sent him out to visit a few friends in the neighbourhood. I went as far as our next door neighbours, but with kids coming to our own door, I let Daddy and Kaden go from there. He had a great visit with one of our friend's daughters (who is two) who was an elephant. Totally unprompted the two of them kissed! We actually had these same friends over the next day for brunch where the kids reenacted the previous night's performance! Budding romance at such a young age is so cute! Kaden really enjoyed having all the kids come to the door. He would say "way foh moh kiss" (translated as "wait for more kids") between each knock at the door and he even helped put candy in their bags. What he seemed to enjoy the most though was trick-or-treating in our own house! He would do a loop of the living room and end up at the candy basket on the side table. He would take a piece out of the bowl and return to sit in the living room to put it in his bag. Repeat. He did also on occasion dump his bag back in the bowl to start the whole process over again. Although he did make some attempts to put a smarties box in his mouth between shaking it and stuffing it in his bag, we escaped this Halloween without having to give him any candy. He doesn't yet know what he's missing and he has his whole life ahead of him to be a sweet tooth! Besides...we had more kids this year than expected and had to give every last piece out before turning the last group away as we brought the pumpkins inside! The first picture is of our 'directional' pumpkin. Since our front door is a little off the beaten path we thought we would help to show which way to get the candy!

Here Kaden demonstrates trick-or-treating in his own house!
 

He was very helpful in handing out the candy to the neighbourhood kids.
 

Falling is fun??? - Late October, 2008
Another twist on Kaden's pillow-affair is falling down. He makes himself laugh as he tosses himself to the ground! I think this started after Kaden had a few harmless tumbles. Instead of making a big deal of it we try to laugh it off with him. Of course...now falling is funny...

Twas the Night before Halloween - October 30, 2008
Kaden is old enough now that he was able to help with the carving of the jack-o-lanterns. Well...he was able to help with the scooping of the guts anyway! He thought slimy was a funny word and he did a pretty good job of helping to scoop. He was less impressed that were were trying to fill a colander with pumpkin seeds...he made many a valiant attempt to dump them out! However he did like taking the lid on and off! Once he saw Daddy drawing the face on the pumpkin he wanted to colour too. So while Craig carved Kaden coloured on the newspaper. It was a fun night for all

Puppet pals -October 28, 2008
For his birthday, Kaden received a shark and stingray puppet. He didn't really take much notice of them at the time and they have stayed quietly in his toy basket until this month. We pulled them out recently to see what he would do. He was a little skeptical to begin with - especially about the shark. But soon he laughed as we held them on our hands and he approached to pet them. It still took him a little longer to be sure the shark wasn't going to bite him, but in no time he was giving them both hugs and kisses. Earlier this month he actually brought the shark outside with him as we walked to our local Choices Market. He did a pretty good job getting it most of the way there, but was dropping it more as we got closer. Lucky for sharkie there was a grocery bag for him to ride home! Now Kaden puts the puppets on his own hands. He will keep them on his hands long enough for a snuggle (if prompted), but then gets a laugh from shaking them off. Too cute.

The evolution of "Kaden" - October, 2008
Kaden made great strides with saying his name this month. He used to just point to himself and say "Kuh". This evolved into actually saying "Kay". More recently he started referring to himself as "Keewee". He still uses this name, but he has also started referring to himself as "Kay-duh". He's getting there!

Pucker-up! - October 28, 2008
Kaden has been very good at blowing kisses for a while. Until recently, if you asked him for a kiss he would just lean his head in for you to bestow him with the desired affection! Not any more. Our little man is a kissing machine! He puckers up, plants his lips...often pausing...and then makes the best kissing smack as he pulls away. You can often get him to plant one on your cheek, but he's particularly fond of getting you right on the kisser! Although he has given one of our friends and his Kindermusik teacher a good one right on the lips he seems to have saved his special technique for his parents... Kaden will grab our cheeks (in a fairly solid pinch I might add) and then direct your face to his! Mmmmmmwwwwhhhaaaa!!!

Here's our little Casanova perfecting his technique!
 

I can't complain! - October 27, 2008
Kaden is an excellent help around the house. He is very good about helping us clean up his toys at the end of the day. He likes to put his face cloth in his laundry basket after he gets his face washed in the morning. He helps me load the washing machine and he deemed it his  job is to help pick out his cloths and bibs when we fold his laundry. He gets the concept of dusting, wiping, sweeping and vacuuming and likes to help...although he's less effective with these chores so far!

Our little pumpkin at the patch - October 26, 2008
We went to a new pumpkin patch this year and it was great. We were joined by a few of our good friends and their kids. Now that all the kids are a bit older they were able to enjoy some of the activities that were available other than just getting a pumpkin and a few pictures! We got to see animals like ducks and pigs and we heard some live music. We took a ride on a hay wagon pulled by a tractor to get out to the patches and each ride was hosted by a friendly employee who played the guitar and sang songs. We played amongst the pumpkins and did our best not to get too muddy and we even found corn to play hide and peek! Kaden still talks about his visit to the pumpkin patch...often reminded my our muddy boots that are still sitting outside our basement door...but he talks about the guitar "dika" and the mud "muddy punkin pass" and more often about the corn "peek in con...daddy peek...mommy peek..."!

More Salad! - October, 2008
Is it strange that a toddler loves salad?!? It started with ceasar salad. Despite the garlicy dressing, Kaden really enjoyed eating the romaine lettuce. Of course, I learned at camp this summer that you have to give him small lettuce pieces that have some 'spine' to them otherwise our little choking hazard has some issues... Anyway, once Kaden discovered that caesar salad also meant croutons it was all over. "Moh coutama!" was all we could ear while we ate. So it became a bit of a negotiation. Of course, Kaden, you can have more croutons...you just need to have another scoop of your dinner. Which he happily gobbled up in the hopes of getting just one more crouton! Expanding out from ceasar salad we are also known to eat green salads. These salads are made with the not-so-friendly lettuce, but Kaden doesn't mind. There are lots of other treats he can have. He enthusiastically yells "peppah!" or "tomoto!" or "cucumbah!" or "mushah!" when asked what he would like to eat from the salad! Again...it turned into a bit of a negotiation. It's a rough life when your 'threat' is "no more salad until you eat some more dinner"! What we have learned though is that the negotiation can back fire too...always a slippery slope to travel...Kaden has on occasion refused our request to eat more of his dinner while still being loudly demanding for the salad. I guess there are worse things to battle over.

 In addition to the salad, Kaden has quite an impressive range of tastes that he surprisingly enjoys...he likes pickles and chili and korma and tabouleh, etc. He doesn't do spicy - not that I blame him - but I wouldn't say his taste buds are bland.

Queen Elizabeth Park - our fall photo-op - October 19, 2008
It seems we started a bit of a tradition a couple years back when we were pregnant with Kaden. Craig and I took a stroll through Queen E park and took some family pics (hubby and wife plus bun in the oven). We returned last year to capture Kaden in the fall leaves and couldn't resist going  back again this year with the latest bun and the dog. Kaden really enjoyed the water fountain at the entrance to the park. He was mesmerized by it, but kept saying "off, off, off". As soon as the fountain finished it's 'routine' and all the water stopped, Kaden would shout "more water"! Once in the park, Kaden enjoyed running between the trees to touch them and to play with the moss growing on the bark! Kaden also really loves all the leaves on the ground. We talk about them when we're walking around our neighbourhood and he was delighted to see all the "cun-see leafs" he could step on or pick up!

Now that he's a mobile toddler he's not as interested in sitting and posing for the camera! It makes each trip to the park (or any repeat location/activity) like a new adventure for all of us as Kaden discovers new things to explore and has new abilities to test. We found a tree this year with drooping branches. He got such a kick out of running between the leaves and playing peek-a-boo.

Kaden got such a kick out of playing around this tree.
If you listen closely you can hear him snort he's laughing so hard!

Of course, we did manage to take a few family pictures.

Check out the difference from last year...I think the only thing the same might be Craig's hat!

Old toys are like new again - Still sometime in October, 2008
On a hunt for batteries one day I was scouring some of Kaden's toys we had retired. It's not that the toys aren't good anymore, but we don't like to overload him more than he already is and we thought that he had outgrown some of them. Clearly not. He just finds new ways to use the old toys. The particular toy is a set of large plastic keys. They are attached to a main "key chain" with buttons, that when pressed, will make sounds or play songs associated with each key (house, car and boat). Kaden quickly figured this out and also figured out which button to press and how many times to get back to the song of his choice. In this video, he was fixated on an old fan favourite - the itsy bitsy spider.

A head banger in the making? - Mid-October, 2008
We have four pillows in our living room that Kaden has taken a liking too. He can be seen taking each one down and placing it on the floor only to return it to the couch to repeat the process. He has also been known to give each pillow a good snuggle. His latest trick is to bang his head into them, which is funny, but you have to know how this is going to end...fortunately we didn't capture that part on video!

Daddies and sons have their own way of bonding!  - Sometime in October, 2008
I don't know how it started. A new 'attack' position was created and Kaden thinks it's hysterical! Daddy pulls his hand up in front of his face in a half T-rex/half I'm-going-to-tickle-you stance and then he pounces! When Kaden wants him to do this or to continue it he makes the same pose himself, but he usually collapses in laughter before the attack can be landed!

What will Ikea think of next? - October 10, 2008
I took Kaden to Ikea again. After our last visit where we walked away with his new chair, this time I was successful in getting what I actually went for (plus a few other things too)! We brought home a tunnel. What fun!

It's the simple things in life that make all the difference!

The Calverts ran for the cure - October 5, 2008
Thanks to all our friends and family that supported us with the warm wished and donations. We have been participating in this event for several years now and are happy to continue the tradition with our expanding family. Unlike last year's deluge we had a lovely sunny day. We actually walked for the cure with a few of our fellow teammates who were also pushing strollers and then joined the rest of the running portion of our team for a delicious brunch back at our friend's house.

As we entered the home stretch we could hear the music starting to play.
Kaden decided to get his groove on in the stroller. A very serious groove!

Lounging with Daddy - October 4, 2008
Here Daddy and Kaden kick back with a good book...

To click and "click off" - what could be better? - October 3, 2008
Kaden has discovered buckles. He loves them. Not as much as elevators and ketchup, but I digress. He really took a fancy to them when we had his booster seat in the dining room from Grandma and Grandpa's visit. He would wonder over to it and spend a long time clicking the buckles together. Fortunately he's not strong enough to undo them yet (we can still trap him when he's in place), but in order to repeat his new task he has to have an innocent bystander to "click off" the buckles for him. Grandma happily obliged, but in her absence she has left us to fill her shoes! I think Ali was trying to figure out what it is Kaden thought was so interesting about his highchair when there was no food to be had!

He is a parrot of not just words, but actions too... - October 3, 2008
We came home from the Choices Market with several cans of 'soda' in the stroller. As Kaden helped me unload he apparently decided he needed to take a break to have a cold one himself! He happily walked with a can from the stroller to his chair, got comfy and pretended to take a big swig! Then he was off his chair and back to the front hall where he placed the can on the ground. He walked back to his chair to sit and to obviously think about how thirsty he was because he would just as quickly get back up, walk to take another can from the stroller or from his stash on the front mat and repeat the whole process. Seeing as he has never drunk from a can nor has he even tasted what is inside he's clearly trying to mimic his Dad's behaviour (although Craig is much less enthusiastic about his beverages)! Kaden was delighted with himself!

Grocery shopping is hard work. Nothing like a little drink to refresh the body and mind!

Marker Madenss! - October 3, 2008
Kaden has been enjoying colouring with crayons, but it wasn't something he went out of his way to ask to do. However, with the introduction of markers he's taken quite a fancy to colouring. Here is Kaden's first day with markers. He's getting quite good at naming his colours now too. He doesn't always get them right (whether that's intentional or not I don't know), but he can pick out and say (in his own dialect of course) blue, red, orange, green, yellow, brown, pink, and purple! He's starting to get more refined by further qualifying some of the colours like "dark blue"!

Here is Kaden in action!

Bath time Fun! - October 1, 2008
Kaden loves his bath. It seems every other night he finds a different thing to like about it or a different way to get his Dad soaked! He makes us laugh with his contagious laughter too! What isn't funny about water being poured out of a jug?!?